A Middle school teacher in Mobile, Alabama was placed on leave for the remainder of the school year after a student revealed their use of a “math test” replete with racist stereotypes, AL.com reported on Tuesday.
The unidentified teacher assigned their class at Burns Middle School a version of a document known online as the “L.A. Math Proficiency Test.” It first came to light after WALA-TV reported that one student took a picture of the assignment, then showed it to his mother, Erica Hall.
Hall then raised the issue with Burns officials. WALA posted a screenshot of the assignment, which can be seen below:
The version of the “test” spotted at Burns was nearly identical to the one distributed online, with only minor changes to differentiate it. For example, one question stated:
Leroy has 2 ounces of cocaine and he sells an 8-ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram. What is the street value of the rest of his hold?
According to Snopes, the original “math test” has been spotted online since the mid-1990s, and was allegedly available in hard copy form since the 1980s. The questions revolve around topics like drug dealing, “pimping,” and drive-by shootings.
“Its humor is obvious: it simultaneously deplores the state of education in large urban centers and furthers the myth that teens from such regions are thoroughly steeped in a drugs, guns, gangs, and promiscuity culture by asserting that even the math questions directed towards them have to be framed in that context to be relevant to their lives,” Scopes noted.
